


Anyone Can Dream of Cooking

by DesertVixen



Category: Ratatouille (2007)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Pre-Canon, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Colette dreams of being a chef.Prequel for Ratatouille.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 14
Collections: 2020 Disney Animated Movie Exchange (DAM Exchange)





	Anyone Can Dream of Cooking

She found the book when she was ten. Her mother had received it as a gift, but Colette had been intrigued by the message of the title.

_Anyone Can Cook_!

At first, she had been scornful. Of course anyone could cook, or how else would people eat? Her mother had begun teaching her how to cook, and it simply wasn’t that complicated.

It was on a rainy afternoon when she had nothing else to read that Colette first opened the book. Auguste Gusteau had written a book that demystified the kitchen of the gourmet restaurant – explaining the different positions that made the machine run – and his recipes, step by step, with pictures. She found the book fascinating, studied it as if she were studying the customs of an alien world. 

Coq au vin, for example. Her mother made something similar, but the version in Gusteau’s book was elevated and refined and…different.

She wanted to make a coq au vin that looked like the one in the book, that would taste like the one in the book. So she paid attention when her mother was teaching her, and worked hard, and dreamed of one day becoming a chef.

*** 

When she was seventeen, she traveled to Paris for the first time, and fell in love.

Not with the man, but with the city. Paris was beautiful and magical, if a little dangerous and dirty. She saw the tourist attractions but more importantly she saw Gusteau’s Restaurant.

She ate at Gusteau’s Restaurant. All these years later, she could recall every detail of her meal. 

Chicken breast, roasted to perfection, seasoned with tarragon and lemon, stuffed with mushrooms and leeks.

Potatoes dauphinoise – creamy and delicately cheesy and garlicky, the perfect complement to the chicken with its perfectly crispy skin.

For dessert, there was a trio of miniature crème brulees in dainty ramekins – a traditional one, one made with brilliantly sweet citrus and mascarpone cheese, and one with decadently sweet cherries and vanilla – that Colette thrilled over, every single last bite.

To the cook who had made her food, it had been just another night’s work.

For Colette, it had been like a taste of a dream.

*** 

Her parents had been somewhat surprised when Colette told them she wanted to move to Paris and become a chef, but they had supported her.

She had moved to Paris, found a ridiculously overpriced studio apartment with a sliver of a window, and found a restaurant where she could train. It wasn’t Gusteau’s Restaurant, but it was a start. 

She moved from that place to another to another, until finally a position opened up at Gusteau’s Restaurant. Colette took it and worked harder than she ever had. 

She was the only woman in the kitchen, and she knew she had to earn her place. At first, she was only a simple cook, but she watched and was quick to volunteer to fill an empty spot. Skinner, the sous chef, had a grating personality but generally didn’t treat Colette any worse than he did the rest of the kitchen.

She had worked there for three months and was acting as poissonier when Gusteau spoke to her for the first time.

“The sole you cooked last night? LeClaire wrote about it in her review. She said it was delicate perfection,” Gusteau said as he clapped Colette on the back. “The review, I have it saved for you in my office.”

At the end of the night, she knocked timidly on the office door. Gusteau told her to enter, and she stepped inside. Colette was drawn to the copy of Anyone Can Cook! displayed prominently. Auguste Gusteau sat at his desk and watched her touch the cover before she turned toward him. 

He held out the newspaper clipping. “The first of many, I think. You have read my book?”

She smiled. “I loved your book. It’s why I wanted to work here.”

He opened a large drawer in the desk and pulled out a copy of _Anyone Can Cook_! After scribbling something inside it, he handed the book to her. 

Later, in the safety of her tiny studio, she opened the book. _To Colette_ , he had written, _a future sous chef_.

_One day_ , she hoped. _One day._

It was her fondest dream.

*** 

In retrospect, they should have realized there was something wrong with Gusteau. He’d started making mistakes, mistakes that they didn’t always catch because he was the chef, and they were his staff. The food began to suffer, and the murmurs began to grow. Colette and the other members of the kitchen did their best, but one night tragedy struck in the person of Anton Ego.

Anton Ego, the toughest food critic in all of Paris.

Anton Ego, who had the power to make or break anyone he chose.

Anton Ego ordered the special – a complicated chicken dish – and didn’t like it.

Now, knowing what she knew about Skinner and his ambition, Colette wondered if perhaps he hadn’t intentionally allowed the dish to go out when he knew it wasn’t good. It had never occurred to her at the time, and one could argue that Skinner had suffered as the rest of them when Ego’s review made the restaurant lose one of its stars.

Worse, shortly after, they lost a star because they lost Gusteau. He passed quietly in his sleep, leaving behind a kitchen of mourning cooks.

Under Skinner, the heir of Gusteau’s business, they worked hard to restore the honor of the restaurant, even as Skinner worked to make money by developing and licensing fast food products with Gusteau’s likeness. It grated on Colette, as it seemed like Skinner was focused on Skinner, and not the restaurant. That, and putting his name on a line of prepared foods seemed counter to the message Gusteau had always sent with his book – Anyone Can Cook, not Anyone Can Use A Microwave.

Everyone had been given the chance to move up, with Horst becoming the sous chef and Colette continuing to work wherever he needed her. She couldn’t imagine going anywhere, not until they had restored Gusteau’s Restaurant to its rightful place in the world of Paris cuisine.

And then, perhaps she would examine her options. Gusteau’s was not the same without Gusteau himself, but Colette was in no hurry to start looking for a new restaurant, where she would likely be in the same position she was here – the only woman in the kitchen, because she’d proven that she deserved to have a place here.

She had no idea how much things were going to change when an awkward young man walked through the doors of the kitchen with a letter for Skinner.

No idea at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it! I thought it would meet your request for missing scenes!


End file.
